Here are more lessons from Philip’s example in Acts 8. This guy shows us how a true believer follows God’s lead. Philip is made of up uber-disciple material. He makes it clear that a Jesus Follower is someone who everywhere is led by God to tell people about Jesus.
- EVERYWHERE- Because of Saul’s heavy hand of persecution, the early church was scattered away from their dynamic, growing congregation in Jerusalem. But instead of bumming out their lives, Acts 8 says that these believers "preached the word wherever they went." The NLT says that they told people EVERYWHERE about Jesus. And Philip, for example (8:5), went to Samaria, to a desert road, to Azotus, and all of the towns on the way to Caesarea. Philip went everywhere.
- IS LED BY GOD- Over and over again it’s clear from Philip’s example that he went where the Holy Spirit told him to go. Philip was told by an angel of the Lord to go to a specific place on a road that went from Jerusalem to Gaza. Once he was there the Holy Spirit told him to run up alongside a chariot where we read about an amazing example of how God arranges divine moments for his followers to make a difference in the lives of others. Acts 8 ends with Philip being taken away by the Holy Spirit and appearing in Azotus and then travelling to Caesarea as God directed him.
- TO TELL PEOPLE ABOUT JESUS- Why did God lead Philip all over the place? Simple. To tell people about Jesus. That’s it. And because he followed God’s lead, Philip was able to preach the good news to all of Samaria, to a powerful Ethiopian, and to several other towns along the coast of Israel. In each of the places, God transformed lives.
I’ll derive more from this at a later point. But for now it’s important to say that we need to follow Philip’s example. We must be following God’s lead everywhere he leads us in order to tell people about Jesus. So I ask: Where are you going today? What is God directing you to say and do in each place? Is there someone God is telling you to talk to about Jesus?
Yes, exactly! Imagine if we could get this wired from our heads to our hearts, that God is already at work in the world and he has invited us to share in this work? How awesome… and how incredibly humbling.
That God has called us to be His ambassadors, his re-presentatives, blows me away. Yet He’s given us His own Spirit, living within us, to help us on this journey, this calling, this unpredictably, dangerously passionate adventure.
right on, p-rupe, i suppose only God can be everywhere… but that’s a cool truth. There is no where we can go where God already isn’t. That means that wherever we are, as we tell people about Jesus, God’s presence and power is already at work. hmmm.
I don’t know about this EVERYWHERE thing you’re talking about, but I like the phrase, “Whererever you are, be there fully,” since EVERYWHERE is somewhat impossible. But I get your point.
Some Christians are waiting for the perfect opportunity to share Christ but never realize that they are the perfect opportunity to share Christ! We think backwards too much. If we would only recognize that we are the called out ones, called to share the powerful truth of Christ’s new way of life, the kingdom of God reigning in peoples’ lives.